Two-Faced Cat Illustration in Adobe Illustrator

LEARN THE TECHNIQUES TO CREATE THIS COOL ARTWORK! | Build out complex shapes with blend modes and Pathfinder to create this cool cat in this Illustrator tutorial.

In this Adobe Illustrator tutorial, we’ll set about creating this cool two-faced cat illustration. We will build simple shapes, convert them to more complex shapes with the help of the Pathfinder, learn about masking, create the multiple levels of shapes that make up the eyeball, create a gradient highlight, use blend modes to create complex transparency effect, drawing with the Brush tool, and so much more! You’ll love this tutorial if you’re into drawing, illustrating, or just general graphic design stuff in Illustrator.

Tutorial Recording Notes:

Disclaimer: these are the actual notes I used to record this video and are written in a language you may or may not understand. Hopefully, you find them useful or cool.

Create new document 2560×1440

Create 540×540 ellipse and align bottom and center (1280X/1440Y)

Set to a 5px black stroke

Copy and paste that shape in front and drag this over to the right and upward a little bit (1525X/1330Y)

Create a 2600×2600 ellipse and position it to form the cheek of the cat (1590X/1035Y)

Grab the Pen Tool and drag the fur edge of the cat’s face:

Set the tongue ellipse fill to black, the cheek pieces to a dark blue and the fur bit to a dark purple

Make sure Smart Guide are turned on and draw a few rectangles and use Path finder to trim off edges of the 2600px ellipse and the furry bit

Select both pieces of the cheek and merge them with Pathfinder

Select this new cheek piece and the fur and copy/paste in place and then go Object>Transform>Reflect and reflect along the vertical axis to flip this and then drag it over in place and let Smart Guides take you home

Fill left side shape with #ff4d97 and right side shape with #140055

Fill tongue with same pink from left side

Use Curvature Pen Tool to draw a big scalloped shape to create the wavy center

Select the right side and the new wavy shape and Divide using Pathfinder

Ungroup them and select the outer piece and Divide that with the tongue shape before you accidentally delete it

Ungroup this and get rid of the outer piece and colorize what needs to be pink and what needs to be blue

Tweak the path as needed to get a nice flowing edge.

Create a rectangle 2560x900px and align it to the middle of the document (1280X/1170Y)

Fill that rectangle with a gradient that has 3x color stops of #00fffa both edge color stops should be set to 0% transparency

Slide the middle stop to about 30% and set this shape to Overlay blend mode

Copy both the big back cat shapes and create a mask for this gradient shape and fill with white

Duplicate that whole shape with mask and paste in front and set the blend mode to Soft Light

Unlink the artwork from the mask and extend the bottom of this shape to the bottom of the bottom of the cat face circles

Add colored blocks behind the sides. Color them #1b1379 on left & #ff4d97 on right (reduce right opacity to 50%).

Create a 2560×1440 and create solid fill of white, align to the center, and cut to clipboard.

Apply a mask to the overall layer and paste that white rectangle in place to reveal the artwork ONLY on the artboard.

Select a piece of the fur and use the color swatch in the Gradient panel and create a color to 50% opacity gradient and use the gradient tool to drag a perfectly angled gradient for this fur. Do this for both pieces of fur

Lock down all the layers and grab the line tool. Open the Stroke panel and set a 5px stroke with rounded caps and set the stroke color to white

Draw 10-20 speckles on each cheek area. Select all and set to Overlay blend mode. Group these up

Use Curvature Pen to draw three cloud shapes and fill top two clouds with #de357c and the bottom cloud with #f384bd

Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and add a few 5×5, 7×7, and 10×10 dots to the sky and group the stars and add an Outer Glow: Normal, Cyan, 10px blur

Grab brush tool and use a brush tip from Brushes panel and set stroke to #0063f0 and paint out 10 whiskers on the right side

Change stroke to white and paint 10 whiskers on the left side

Boost stroke on whiskers if needed and then group them all together and mask the loose ends using some gradients.

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Nathaniel Dodson: I am a young web designer and commercial photographer specializing in music, business, and athlete portraiture. I am a young and energetic individual who has been working in the design and creative field since I first started dabbling with Photoshop in year 2000.